Friday, November 23 was one of the craziest shopping days of the year.
The origin of Black Friday is unknown to most shoppers who participate during the night. Most often it is heard that Black Friday starts off the Christmas season by pushing the store’s finances from red (loss) to black (profit). It is also said that “Black Friday” was first used in 1966 to describe the crowds in stores the day after Thanksgiving. The mobs were said to have looked like the people that crowded the streets after the stock market crashed on the original Black Friday.
Over the years, Black Friday sales have reached new heights and set new records. In 2011, sales grew 24.3% over 2010 and total spending rose 39.3%. Online spending from 2010 to 2011 rose to $816 million, and in-store spending was up to a record $11.4 billion.
According to the National Retail Federation, as many as 152 million people planned to go out and shop during Black Friday and the following weekend. This is a 10% increase from 2011. The number of people who were expected to shop from their mobile device this year increased 150% over 2011.
89 million consumers shopped online on Black Friday this year which resulted in a 20.7% increase in online sales. 10% of those sales came from the iPad alone. Sales in department stores grew by 16.8% over 2011, while health and beauty sales rose 11%. Clothing sales showed an increase of 17.5% over Black Friday 2011.
During Black Friday weekend, a record 247 million people visited stores and websites. The average shopper spent $423 during this weekend. For the whole weekend, spending reached $59 billion. Around 35 million people had shopped in stores or online by midnight on Black Friday, up from 29 million last year.